The Plasticity of Social Brain Network in Adults With Autism Spectrum Disorder

National Taiwan University

Status: Enrolling

Conditions: Autism Spectrum Disorder

Treatments: Behavioral: PEERS

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT05884853

202012163RIND

Details and patient eligibility

About

"Social brain" refers to brain regions dedicated to processing social information and enabling us to recognize and evaluate others' mental states. The social brain hypothesis suggests that our brains evolve to navigate complex social systems. The social brain is hypothesized to consist of a distributed network including the posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS), the dorsal and ventral medial prefrontal cortices (dmPFC and vmPFC), ACC and posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), the amygdala, the orbital frontal cortex (OFC), and the fusiform gyrus (FG), TPJ, inferior occipital gyrus (IOG), and the insula. Each region serves distinct role while works together to support social processing, including perceiving, interpreting, and generating responses to the intentions, dispositions, and behaviors of others.

Enrollment: 120 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 50 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• age between 18 and 50
• diagnosed with ASD from licensed mental health or medical professional based on DSM5
• have social problems
• motivated to participate in the treatment
• fluent in chinese
• caregiver also fluent in chinese and motivated to participate
• had a full-scale IQ > 70 on WAIS-IV
• scored ≧ 26 on the caregiver-reported Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ), indicating clinical impairment associated with ASD.

Exclusion criteria

• history of major mental illness, such as bipolar affective disorder, schizophrenia, psychosis, or neurological diseases
• visual impairment and/or hearing impairment
• any metal, electronic part that cannot be removed from the body, or being pregnant, which may not be able to use fMRI scan.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Non-Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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120 participants in 2 patient groups

ASD group

Experimental group

Description:

autistic adolescents with their caregiver

Treatment:

Behavioral: PEERS

Control group

Sham Comparator group

Description:

healthy control without their caregiver

Treatment:

Behavioral: PEERS